The kick of meeting of the project Incuba – cross border agrifood incubators – took place in Patras on July 31st and 1st August 2018 at the main building of the Region of Western Greece which is the Lead Beneficiary of the project.

Incuba, a project funded by the Interreg V-A Greece-Italy Programme 2014-2020 under the Priority Axis “Innovation and Competitiveness”, has an overall objective to sustain creation, innovation, competitiveness and internationalization of start-ups and Small and Medium Entrerprises, through the strengthening of existing and new agro-food business incubators at the project area.

Lead Beneficiary is the Region of Western Greece, a key actor concerning Innovation and Competitiveness in the Programme area and not only, since the Region has been awarded with the European Entrepreneurial Region 2017 Prize.

The partnership includes also the greek Ilia Chamber, and 3 italian partners: the Chamber of Commerce of Bari, the Regional Agency for Technology and Innovation (ARTI Puglia), the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari (CIHEAM BARI).

Two associated partners are the Chamber of Achaia and Puglia Region – Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environmental Protection.

Incuba project capitalizes the results of the previous project Fooding, already funded during the 2007-2013 Programming Period whose main result was to the creation of 2 incubators in Patras and Bari that support the agro-food and rural enterprises through incubation paths of young entrepreneurs.

Main activities of Incuba project include, information, publicity and dissemination, sharing and setting up of an innovative incubation services model for agro food startups, strengthening the existing incubators in Bari and Patras and, drafting cross border policy recommendations in order to strengthen youth entrepreneurship in agro-food sector.